At the end of February, five months after my failed attempt to join the EPC last September (which is quite a story in itself), I finally managed to make an orderly transfer out of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians. In the process, I have also become a part of a large, very healthy church in suburban St Louis that has just made the same move to ECO.
I do bring with me some fond memories of my 43 years in the church in which I was confirmed (41 years as an elder, 31 as a minister). I have been a member of five presbyteries, and have served in five installed positions as solo pastor and three as interim pastor. I was privileged to serve as delegate to the General Assembly in Denver in 2003, and to preach for the Presbytery of Prospect Hill. I have also been a regular contributor to Presbyweb (now ChurchAndWorld.com) and the Presbyterian Outlook. I leave behind a number of friends, some of whom God has obviously called to remain for the sake of those who need their witness, and even some friends from the other side of the ideological divide.
In 2011, I became convinced that the PCUSA was no longer a church in the Scots’ Confession definition of the term, it was a mission field, a field like the 2nd Century church, where orthodox and heretic competed for souls and turf in the same neighborhood. (Saying so in my Outlook post “What Would Bonhoeffer Do?” (http://pres-outlook.org/2011/06/what-would-bonhoeffer-do/) probably cost me a job.)
Yet I was willing to stay on that mission field, as long as God gave me a place to serve there. However, at this point, the doors began to close for me, and although my EP did her best to try to persuade me to stay, I came to the conviction that God was pointing the way out. While I was waiting for the process of leaving the PCUSA to run its course, numerous other issues began to pile up on my list of grievous concerns, issues on which the church seemed to be always getting it wrong, issues far beyond the sex debate. I became increasingly glad that I was getting out.
One key point where I began to sense that this was no longer the church where I belonged was a planned theological discussion on the atonement in a meeting of local presbytery leaders. I already realized that Anselm’s satisfaction theory (which I regard to be the historic central belief on which all the other theories depend) was going to be a minority position. I was shocked to find only about 20 percent support for the view. Conditions were even worse than I had realized.
Left-wing bigotry is one of my worst memories of the PCUSA. For over 30 years, I have seen worshippers of the goddess Inclusiveness take a baseball bat to anyone who does not believe like they do. Look at the aftermath of last month’s SCOTUS decision on marriage, and you’ll see left-wing bigotry on steroids in the society at large. It’s not enough to get permission to do it our way, but you must also participate and celebrate it. When it comes to bullying and oppression, the Left can’t recognize its own face in the mirror. I feel for those on the Left who reject the hypocritical exclusivism of their fellow progressives, but much like moderate Muslims, they are not in a position to control the bullying tactics of their comrades done in the name of so-called “justice.”
Now, there are orthodox churches with orthodox pastors who are deeply troubled by what the PCUSA has become, but who do not yet feel sufficiently compelled to leave. I can understand that. However, I predict that push will come to shove for many of them when their present pastor leaves or retires. If having an orthodox pastor is a high priority for a local church, it is going to become increasingly difficult to find such a pastor at a time where most of such pastors are either leaving by their own choice or are being driven out against their will. Such a congregation will need to decide what they will do when their current pastor leaves before they get to that point. If it is important for them to have an orthodox pastor, this may longer be the place where they can find one.
ECO is so new that it doesn’t have that centuries-old feel. But what good is centuries of faith tradition that one has apostasized from? Unlike the EPC, which accepts only an updated Westminster Confession and its catechisms, ECO accepts the entire Book of Confessions as it existed when ECO was formed. The fact that we accept all of these confessions is because, like Calvin and Luther, we believe that we are the ones who are remaining faithful to the historic Church and to the faith contained in those confessions.
Tom Hobson
Biblical Studies Chair, Morthland College, West Frankfort IL, and
Assistant Pastor, Bonhomme Presbyterian Church, Chesterfield MO
19 Comments. Leave new
Why did your attempt to join the EPC fail?
(different Tom here)
How did they let you leave with your property?
Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery did not “let (them) leave with (their) property”. Bonhomme voted 722-71 last October to disaffiliate. The matter will be settled in the Missouri courts, which decide church property matters on the basis of neutral principles, and which have not been favorable to the PC(USA)’s immoral property trust claims.
“However, I predict that push will come to shove for many of them [orthodox churches] when their present pastor leaves or retires. If having an orthodox pastor is a high priority for a local church, it is going to become increasingly difficult to find such a pastor at a time where most such pastors are leaving by their own choice or are being driven out against their will.”
Truer more prophetic words have not been said so clearly!
Tom,
You wrote, ‘Now, there are orthodox churches with orthodox pastors who are deeply troubled by what the PCUSA has become, but who do not yet feel sufficiently compelled to leave.””
The later will happen once the PC cops and the gays have their way, and in time, many will be forced to leave with their own lives in the balance. We await Christ’s rapture of the Body of Christ, then the tribulation, armageddon, the 1000 reign of Christ and finally Christ ruling from Jerusalem forever after judging the wicked into eternal damnation. Rejoice.
Am I misreading something? I’m replying to this essay. Tom H. wrote, “I finally managed to make an orderly transfer out of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.”
So, yes, he did leave. My question was “How did he get to leave with his property?”
Rev. Hobson identified himself as an Assistant Pastor (i.e., a pastor hired by the Session of a church, rather than called by the congregation) at Bonhomme Presbyterian Church. The Layman Online previously reported on Bonhomme’s disaffiliation from the PC(USA) and its affiliation with the ECO.
Two theological issues. The local committee felt I was too much like Josh McDowell on the issue of evidence for God and the Bible (they wanted a stronger fideist position). They also objected to my insistence that when Paul says “all Israel will [eventually] be saved”, he meant literal genetic Israel. (My understanding is that Paul expected Israel as a nation to turn to Christ, not that he believed that every individual Jew would be saved.) The local committee did not see fit to suggest that either of these issues might be scrupled. Yes, it left me questioning what they meant by “non-essentials” in their slogan “in non-essentials, liberty” – I thought, gee, what is non-essential here?
I’m sorry to hear that you had a rough go of it. In most EPC presbyteries, this would not have been a problem—most will ordain those who disagree with one or more of the five points of Calvinism.
When Colonial in Kansas City joined the EPC five years ago, all of the pastors (including two assistant pastors who have since been called as associates) were received into membership first in the New Wineskins Presbytery, then in the Presbytery of the West (one of the associates is a woman, and since Mid-America has a majority of pastors and ruling elders who do not believe in the ordination of women, Colonial sought affiliation with the Presbytery of the West), and now in the Great Plains Presbytery. From what I’ve seen, I don’t doubt that the Evidentialist approach to apologetics and your interpretation of what Paul meant by “all Israel” would have been viewed by any of these presbyteries as non-essential.
Nevertheless, I wish you success in your new ministry in the ECO.
So he left and didn’t have to demand property in order to do it.
It’s nice to see that someone gets that.
Tom, the author of this piece, Tom Hobson, speaks of his own journey as a PCUSA pastor seeking to be transferred in good standing to a more theologically faithful denomination, not of the journey of a congregation seeking to be dismissed with its property to a likewise more faitful denomination. Property issues are not a question with individual transfer of ordination requests, though I’m guessing you already knew that.
I was never much a fan of people making statements for the sake of making statements, or giving a long winded apologetic for their actions and behaviors. I recall the EP of Tropical Presbytery lecturing one and all last year, how their neo-athoritarian seizures of property and denial of due process was all in keeping of good order. The Left is full of such bloviators and they only expose themselves in the process.
Lets assume the Good Pastor in question is acting upon deeply held faith and convictions which are real and authentic. And his choices should be honored as an action of faith. As any of those who choose to remain, clergy, lay, have their own reasons and convictions, no less worthy or valid.
Even in pagan Babylon and Assyria, the remnant of faithful remained in a foreign and pagan land, God did not abandoned them and they all lived to see the Temple rebuilt and their pagan overlords fall at their feet, God is not dead, and the end result of the apostate and pagan remain the same.
Yes, Mateen, I did know that. But apparently you and I are two of the only folks in the PCUSA who do. Most everyone else seems to believe that you can’t leave unless you get get to take some property with you.
I appreciate that Tom H. did what he thought was right and left without having to be paid to do so.
@ Tom – haven’t you already left??
This testimony is helpful in proving the trajectory of the PCUSA.
The issue is not just social justice for gay marginalized people.
The issue is about theological diversity that subverts the Gospel message and the atonement of Jesus. Pluralism is a real problem in the all inclusive big tent.
Churches going through discernment need to make the issues clear
because the liberal contingency is trying to make it all about homosexuality and the definition of marriage. Left- wing bigotry is real and getting worse.
EP should take note because the pressure is going to get stronger
for them going forward to agree with the national leaders in dealing with voices of orthodoxy.
The sad truth is that as a result of the last few GA s and the “big tent” philosophy that there is division in the denomination, the Presbytery, the COM committees, the pastors, the membership and the ministry is
jeopardized. This letter sheds some light on the real problems.
I commend Rev. Hobson for sharing and being courageous in his faithful walk with God!
Have we all accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior?
Welcome back Pres Person.
We missed you in the debate on Planned Parenthood. But when the topics get serious or matters of life and death you seem to take a shrink back to the shadows.
I welcome the personal attacks and insults. You represent your beloved denomination so well.
… how tolerant of you.
Elsewhere on this site, Loren wrote, “I cannot disagree more. Essential doctrines central to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, such as the Penal Substitutionary Atonement and Salvation by Grace Alone through Faith Alone in Christ Alone are regarded as mere “theories” and disbelieved by a great many pastors and teachers in the PC(USA), and the recent redefinition of marriage greatly perverts and distorts the marriage of Christ and His Church in the marriage of one man and one woman. I am sure that there are many PC(USA) pastors and teachers that still faithfully proclaim the Gospel, but there are many, many more who do not.”
You’re lucky you made it to ECO, Tom H., because with Universalist theology like yours, you are not orthodox enough for folks like Loren. 😉